After Super Bowl sales seemed to get off to a slow start, CBS said it’s close to selling out ad time with still two weeks to go until the big game.

The network had lined up 25 advertisers as of yesterday and expects to have a few more deals in place before the end of the day, according to JoAnn Ross, CBS’s ad sales chief.

In a surprising twist, Coca-Cola is returning to the game after a decade-long absence. Coke appeared to have ceded the Super Bowl to archrival Pepsi, which is the second-biggest advertiser behind Anheuser-Busch.

Coke bought three 30-second spots and will air two ads – including an animated spot called “Videogame” that has already debuted in theaters and on television.

CBS has managed to snare three rookie advertisers. Garmin, which makes GPS navigation devices, will run a humorous spot showing an “average Joe” overcome by a monstrous map.

Salesgenie.com, a provider of business leads, will also make its debut.

An unusual player is King Pharmaceutical, which sells blood pressure drug Altace. The company won’t tout the drug directly, however, and will instead focus on the dangers of high blood pressure.

Taco Bell, which was expected to sit this one out after a nationwide E. coli scare, will run a spot for its Carne Asada Steak Grilled Taquitos featuring two funny lions.

Other advertisers suiting up for Super Sunday include Emerald Nuts, Careerbuilder, FedEx and GoDaddy.com. At least three car companies, Honda, Toyota and GM’s Chevrolet division, have also bought spots.

The Super Bowl is TV’s biggest event of the year, drawing nearly 100 million viewers. But the intense scrutiny and high price can scare off advertisers.

CBS is asking $2.6 million for a single 30-second spot, although that is at the high end. Advertisers pay less if they buy more than one spot or accept a slot later in the game when many viewers have tuned out.

Despite fierce competition from the Internet and other outlets, CBS’ Ross denied that advertisers were holding out longer than usual this year in hopes of getting a discount.

“It is no different than any other year,” she told reporters at a Reuters panel about the merits of buying a Super Bowl spot.

Advertiser interest in the game also was spurred by the highly rated conference championships on Sunday, which set the Super Bowl between the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts.